2022 and Aldi: Medion presents notebook based on Raspberry Pi | Hacker News Reader

2022 and Aldi: Medion presents notebook based on Raspberry Pi

gettotext.com

62 pointsTomte39 comments

Why is there a big list of notebooks with a huge amazon logo for several pages of scroll before the actual article?

Perhaps it should be some sort of carrousel, but some script has not loaded correctly or not dealt with bad/missing data cleanly, so failed before it was supposed to do some DOM/CSS rearrangements. If you watch network activity, a couple of the many requests fail, and in the console output there is a script error.

The page seems to be a direct copy of a German article[1], possibly machine translated. The original German article has a single paragraph with the laptops which seems to have been butchered when it was copied.

[1]: https://www.computerbild.de/artikel/cb-Tests-PC-Hardware-Ras...

Not in the browser I am using.

Because like 90% of the web nowadays, this looks like a website made with content scraped from other sites.

I wish there was a laptop like device that runs Linux well and lets you seperate the keyboard and the monitor.

Every time I work with my laptop in a cafe, I would love to put the monitor a bit higher (on a stand or a book or something) while still be able to use my keyboard.

It's a shame, that the Microsoft surface things do not let you use the keyboard while it is disconnected.

It would be nice indeed. Novena had that: https://www.crowdsupply.com/sutajio-kosagi/novena

Maybe the Pine Tab? Although it runs Linux well but not fast.

It looks like that is a tablet? The problem with tablets is that they have glossy screens. Not well suited for work under suboptimal lightning conditions like cafes.

Also its only 10". I would like 13".

There are third party Surface keyboards / "type covers" which are similarly detachable but run over bluetooth (because the Surface connector is proprietary I suppose). I have no clue about the quality but if you want it to work detached, you surely have some options.

I really want a device with the same form-factor as an iPad Pro with a Magic Keyboard but running Linux. Or even running MacOS rather than iPadOS. The cantilever design raises the screen up so much more nicely than a notebook form-factor.

The cantilever design is indeed an elegant solution, though it can make it a little more difficult to hit the top row of keys.

I was thinking that this laptop is kind of like a Pi 400 + battery + screen. If we look at is this way, then what the OP wanted is kind of already available - you can buy portable computer monitors.

Interestingly, the Pi 400 + screen is kind of a "smart" keyboard combined with a "dumb" monitor, while the iPad Pro + Magic Keyboard is a kind of "dumb" keyboard combined with a "smart" monitor. It seems like both approaches have advantages and disadvantages.

Honestly this is my dream as well. The iPad Pro has a gorgeous 120Hz Display, the most powerful ultra mobile CPU and is incredibly light. I have hidden hopes that Asahi Linux will offer a path if a new exploit is discovered.

Not exactly what you're talking about, but I've seen a few RaspberryPi + iPad + External Keyboard setups where they either use the iPad as an external display or VNC into the Pi from the iPad. IIRC you can power the Pi via USB C -> PoE on iPads with sensible ports on them, so you don't need an external battery or UPS.

Again, not what you actually want (I share your pain/longing), but damn if it isn't starting to get close.

So a tablet with a Bluetooth keyboard and mouse? Of course this runs into the problem that most tablets ship with horrible phone type OSes that make it hard to be productive.

Why not use a external keyboard? A cute little mechanical isn't only a eye catcher peace but also light and kinda mobile.

Site is unresponsive, Archive: https://archive.ph/hlxMr

SSL_ERROR_NO_CYPHER_OVERLAP on this site.

Back in probably 2001 I bought a Medion notebook. It has really surprising specs for its price and, surprise surprise, it had full Linux support (this was more than 20 years ago!).

It as probably one of the top 5 acquisitions of my life.

Same, except for the graphical chipset (from SIS, iirc) for which no drivers existed for 3D acceleration. But the chipset was shitty anyway, so it was not a real issue.

It was a huge blue and grey plastic brick. Pretty heavy. Not really ugly but not designed to be pretty.

>adapted Raspberry Pi Compute Module 4

>permanently installed in the notebook housing

Total dealbreaker. So I have to replace the whole thing when I fry a GPIO port? Why even make this if you're not going for the modular approach? This is why the compute module was invented!

It's definitely bizarre, I read downward thinking "Okay a company putting RPi's into laptop cases to cut design costs while cashing into the Chromebook demographic, smart". Then with the announcement of an exposed GPIO port I realized it's hobbyist friendly.

I think it's ultimately a confusing blend of the two because the company couldn't make a solid choice. I'd love to say the permanent installation was cheaper because they avoided extra costs of swappable parts, backup pieces and support, but of course at the price of shrinking their consumer base.

If it's just meant to be a cheap chromebook-y thing, that's defensible I guess. But it's outright irresponsible to position it as a hacking/learning laptop for kids and expose delicate GPIO ports which they will fry, and not have them be replaceable. It's an e-waste generator, and parents who get one of these for its stated purpose likely don't realize the serious risk of losing their investment.

And no mention of storage. If the poor student does manage to fry it completely, do they lose all their work?

It's a concept. Plus, the original German article didn't even get some of the basics right: "The processor is an ARM Cortex-A72"

Maybe you supply your own uSD card for storage?

At least this can't be any worse than the old Pitop with its shitty keyboard, cheap construction, terrible trackpad, nearly useless battery management, tiny battery, low rez screen, and unforgivably high price.

This looks great, I hope it becomes an actual product. I can think of quite a few friends and family members who cloud use this as their main computer. Also like that they make the GPIOs accessible.

There's no advantage to this over using a cheap ass 2nd hand laptop and a PI via USB though?! Other than cuteness of form factor maybe?!

Not everyone wants to buy secondhand. I know people who have been bitten before and only buy new now. I don't know how true their story is, but often something secondhand is not like new, and if you are picky, you might not like secondhand.

Also, for a school situation, having everyone use the same laptop and software will make this more uniform and easier for the teacher.

I'm not one for elegance but I personally hate having things dangling off my laptop.

While I can see the utility of a $35 computer and even a $70 computer-in-a-keyboard-box, this leaves me a bit baffled. A Pi is bought for tinkering. A notebook is meant to be your "main" computer.

Reminds me of the netbook phenomenon — very cheap notebooks but ultimately too weak for anything.

> A Pi is bought for tinkering

Not always. Many of use it to run actual workflows too. It actually makes for a decent home server.

My point is, a home server is not a main computer. I have several Pi's but never used one as my main computer.

I still have the dream that I can use a Pi as my main desktop and main laptop. I still need more CPU/GPU power and more connections, so the dream is not here yet. It will come some day. My main desktop now is an AMD A8 from 2015, which suits me just fine. My laptop has a Celeron from 2015, which is too weak for me. I would desire to have something like that AMD A8, but smaller, cheaper and lower power consumption. It will get there.

I've never used a laptop as my main computer. That doesn't mean other people can't do it.

The engineers at my old company utilized many of them to runs tests against hardware. Hobbyists don't realize that they can indeed have business uses.

I used my Pi 400 as my daily driver for about 6 months. I loved it... until they released the new version of Raspberry Pi OS that has some issues for me.

And now that the COVID restrictions have lifted for the most part, I wish I could bring it with me to work from coffee shops.

The 4th generation Pis are plenty capable. Biggest problem I have is the wireless drivers seem to have suffered from serious regressions over the past couple of years across all models of Pi.

It used to be I could install hostapd and have a perfectly stable and capable (if somewhat short range) access point. Then something happened to the driver and now the APs tend to crash and lock up the wireless regularly.

On the fashion wheel, we've circled back to thin clients. At least that's the trend I notice.[0]

And I'm not against it. A cheap, small, arm laptop that can last multiple hours of use and all the work is done on remote beefy hardware.

[0] See JetBrains Fleet/Gateway, talks by Netflix at strangeloop implementing this pattern for their video editors (I think), GitHub codespaces, etc.

I use an old Chromebook, running Linux, in much this way. For it's compact form factor, and the small amount I acquired it for originally, it's been a great value.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com